JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

was promoting the foundation of the Comité Central Israelita
(the representative body of Mexican Jewry) in 1938, which he
presided over for two years.
[Efraim Zadoff (2nd ed.)]
BEHAR, NISSIM (1848–1931), founder of modern Hebrew
education in Ereẓ Israel and public figure in Jewish life in the
U.S. Behar was born in Jerusalem. He graduated from the *Alliance
Israélite Universelle teachers institute in Paris in 1869
and taught in Syria, Bulgaria, and Turkey. He headed the Alliance
school in Constantinople from 1873 to 1882. There he
introduced the direct method of teaching Hebrew, “Ivrit be-
Ivrit.” In 1882 Behar initiated the founding of the new Alliance
school in Jerusalem, Torah u-Melakhah (“Torah and Work”),
and became its headmaster. One of the teachers there was
Eliezer *Ben-Yehuda, and its first students included David
*Yellin and Yosef *Meyuḥas. Its modern methods were eventually
applied in Hebrew schools throughout the country.
Behar was an outstanding leader of the yishuv, especially as a
liaison with the Turkish authorities. He attempted, with the
help of Baron Edmond de *Rothschild, to regain the Western
Wall for the Jewish community, but failed because of rabbinical
opposition. The rabbis’ hostility to Behar resulted from
his educational innovations, and he was eventually relieved of
his duties as headmaster (1897) and sent to represent the Alliance
in the U.S. (1901). In his attempts to organize the work of
the Alliance in the U.S., Behar encountered difficulties from
Jewish institutions which looked askance at the activities of a
large, foreign Jewish organization. American Jewish leaders
did not approve of his intense propaganda, public meetings,
and protests. Nevertheless, Behar soon became a public figure
in American Jewry. He expounded the idea that political
organizations should speak for American Jewry, and in 1906
founded the National Liberal Immigration League, directing
it until 1924. In 1908 Behar traveled to Europe and back in order
to learn how immigrants to the U.S. were treated on the
boats. He was one of the founders of the Federation of Jewish
Organizations. Behar was active in the *Histadrut Ivrit in the
U.S. from its beginning. He died in New York and his remains
were reburied in Jerusalem a year later.
Bibliography: Z. Szajkowski, in AJHSP, 39 (1950), 406–43;
A. Goldberg, Pioneers and Builders (1943), 188–93; H. Debrest, in: Jewish
Forum (1928), 522–6; M. Ribalow, in: Hadoar, 6 (1925), 118; M.D.
Gaon, Yehudei ha-Mizraḥ be-Ereẓ Yisrael, 2 (1938), 151–9; E. Cohen-
Reiss, Mi-Zikhronot Ish Yerushalayim (19672), index.
BEHEMOTH (intensive plural of Heb. behemah, “beast”),
creature described in the Book of Job (40:15–24). It is depicted
as an animal that eats grass like an ox, is all muscles
and strength, lives in the marsh in the shade of the ẓe’elim
(“*jujube”), eats huge quantities of food, and can swallow
the waters of the Jordan. In the light of the description of
other animals in these chapters, it would seem that the reference
is to an existing animal, to which legendary details have
been added. In later Jewish literature, however, it appears as
behr, issachar falkensohn
a purely mythical creature. One of the mammoths fashioned
on the fifth day of creation (Targ. Yer., Gen. 1:21; II Bar. 29:4),
he is the male counterpart on land of the female *Leviathan
in the sea (IV Ezra 6:49–52). He is said to dwell in the wilderness
of Dendain (or Dudain), east of Eden (I Enoch 60:7–8),
or else, by a fanciful interpretation of Psalm 50: 10, to span “a
thousand hills” (IV Ezra 6: 49–52; Lev. R. 21). At the end of
the world’s existence he will be slain and served, along with
his mate, at a banquet tendered to the righteous (ibid.; Targ.
Yer., Num. 9:6; PdRE 11; cf. TB, BB 75a). It has been suggested
that this reflects the Iranian belief that at the Resurrection
the righteous will obtain immortality by drinking a nectar
made out of the fat of the mythical ox Hadhayosh mixed with
haoma (a plant; Bundahishn 19:13, 20:25; Dadistan-i-Denik
37:119); but it is undoubtedly inspired also by the statement
in Psalms 74:14 that God once fed the flesh of Leviathan “to
the people.” The hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibus) has
been identified with Behemoth. It is the largest land animal
in the Middle East, weighing up to three tons. It has powerful
sinews, an enormous head, and a wide mouth with huge
molars. Once it inhabited Ereẓ Israel; skeletal remains of it
have been found in the vicinity of the Yarkon River. In ancient
Egypt it was a favorite quarry of hunters and its capture with
spears is often depicted.
Bibliography: Lewysohn, Zool, 355; Tristram, Nat Hist,
50–53; J. Feliks, Animal World of the Bible (1962), 24.
[Jehuda Feliks / Theodor H. Gaster]
BE-ḤOZAI, a district extending E. of *Mesene, S.E. of Babylon,
and N. of the Persian Gulf. Geographically, Be-Ḥozai did
not belong to Babylonia, but to Persia. Despite the great distance
between them (Ta’an, 21b; BK 104b), very close ties (including
commercial) existed between the Jews of Babylonia
and those of Be-Ḥozai. The district had a plentiful supply of
water, and rice, extensively grown there, was used for bread by
its inhabitants (Pes. 50b). It was an important station for goods
in transit between Babylonia and Persia (Shab. 51b; BK 104b;
Ket. 85a). Many problems were addressed to the Babylonian
scholars by its sages, the names of some of whom are known,
e.g., Avimi (Nid. 5b), Aḥa (BM 39b), Beroka (Ta’an. 22a), Avram
Ḥoza’ah (Git. 50a), Ḥanina (Shab. 130b). The Babylonians had
a generally poor opinion of the common people of Be-Ḥozai
(Ned. 22a). The Babylonian Talmud mentions, among other
localities in the region, Be Lapet (Syriac for Be Shafat), where
many Jews lived (Ta’an, 22a), and Shushan (Meg. 2b), or “Sus,”
its widely used Syriac abbreviation (Sanh. 94a).
Bibliography: J. Obermeyer, Landschaft Babylonien (1929),
204–14. Add. Bibliography: B. Eshel, Jewish Settlements in Babylonia
during Talmudic Times (1979), 58–59.
[Moshe Beer]
BEHR (Baer), ISSACHAR FALKENSOHN (1746–1817),
Polish poet who wrote in German. Born in Zamosc, Behr
was raised in a traditional, Yiddish-speaking home. He was a
failure as a petty tradesman and, leaving his wife and family
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3 263